All about LentQ: What is Lent?A:Historically, Lent is the period of forty days before Easter, excluding Sunday, it began on Ash Wednesday and ended on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). In recent years this has been changed so that it now ends with the evening mass of Maundy Thursday, to prepare the ground for the Triduum. Q: Why are Sundays excluded from the calculation of forty days? A: Because Sunday is the day Christ resurrected, making it an inappropriate day to fast and mourn our sins. On Sunday we must celebrate the resurrection of Christ for our salvation. It is Friday when we commemorate his death for our sins. The Sundays of the year are days of celebration and the Fridays of the year are days of penance. Q: Why are the forty days called Lent? A: They are called Lent because that is the old English word for spring, the season of the year in which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages, its name is a derivative of the Latin term Quadragesima, or "the forty days". Q: Why does Lent last forty days? A: Because forty days is a traditional number of discipline, devotion and preparation in the Bible. So Moses remained on the Mountain of God for forty days. Jesus spent forty days in the desert praying and fasting (Matthew 4:2). Since Lent, while it is a period of prayer and fasting, it is appropriate for Christians to imitate their Lord with a period of forty days. . Christ used a forty-day period of prayer and fasting to prepare for his ministry, which culminated in his death and resurrection. It is therefore appropriate for Christians to imitate him with a forty-day period of prayer and fasting to prepare for the celebration of his culminating ministry, Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (the day of resurrection). Thus the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, like us, has been tested in all respects, yet without sinning” (Hebrews 4, 15). Through the solemn forty days of Lent, the Church is united each year with the mystery of Jesus in the desert. (CCC 540).Q: When does Lent begin?A: Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is the day when the faithful have their foreheads signed with ashes in the shape of a cross (see article on Ash Wednesday).).